1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data storage devices such as tape drives and, more particularly, to a tape drive that presents both sides of a length of magnetic tape to one or more tape heads or tape head assemblies for recording data onto and/or reading data from both sides of the tape.
2. Relevant Background
Tape drives have been widely employed in industry for over thirty years due to their ability to store large amounts of data on a relatively small and inexpensive removable format. Typically, a removable cartridge holding a reel or spool of storage tape is initially loaded into a tape drive. After coupling the storage tape on the cartridge reel to a take-up reel of the tape drive (e.g., via respective leaders), the tape is unwound from the cartridge supply reel, moved past one or more tape heads (e.g., one or more tape head assemblies) for reading and/or writing of data, and wound onto the take-up reel via a drive motor. Next, the tape is unwound from the take-up reel, moved past the tape heads, and wound onto the cartridge. The storage tape must be uncoupled from the take-up reel prior to removing the cartridge from the tape drive.
Current tape drives write and/or read data from a single side of the tape within a cartridge. More specifically, the take-up reel and various tape path guides (e.g., rollers) in current tape drives pass or otherwise present only one of the opposing surfaces of the tape in front of the one or more tape heads of the tape drives during writing and reading operations. Generally, magnetic tape is made up of a plurality of layers (e.g., films, coatings, and/or the like) of any appropriate materials and thicknesses. While not all layers are necessarily required, magnetic tape typically includes a base substrate with a magnetic layer on one side thereof. In this regard, the side of the substrate having the magnetic layer is the side passed in front of the one or more tape heads during writing and/or reading operations of the tape drive (i.e., the side of the substrate having the magnetic layer faces the tape heads as the magnetic tape passes by the tape heads so that the tape heads can write data to and/or read data from the magnetic layer). Conversely, current tape drives face the other side of the substrate away from the tape heads during tape drive operation (e.g., towards a rotational axis of the supply and take-up reels). In this regard, the opposing sides of the magnetic tape generally maintain a fixed orientation during operation of the tape drive. That is, the side of the substrate over which the magnetic layer is disposed is typically always facing away from the rotational axes of the reels and rollers and towards the tape heads while the side of the substrate over which a magnetic layer is not disposed is typically always facing towards the rotational axes of the reels and rollers and away from the tape heads.